Sonic Origins Plus Update Goes Live On Switch, Here's What's Included

Pssst, Sega... scanlines/CRT mode filter, next update? Pleeease...?

I really love this site but this article is lacking. It would be great to know what the "tails in water bug" actually is. If the headline says "here's what's included," you would kind of expect to have a knowledgable description of what is included in the patch.

@BarkTheBear The 'Tails in Water' bug is (or was, I guess) a massive game-breaking issue where if you tried to swim underwater as Tails, the game would straight-up crash. This made the game borderline unplayable.

I guess it wasn't explained here because it's such a huge problem, basically everyone who's played this has experienced it.

EDIT: Just checked the actual patch notes and they barely say anything beyond "Crashes with Tails fixed and other bug fixes", which is... REALLY not helpful. That explains why this article doesn't say what's been fixed - we don't know, and won't until fans dig in and see what's different. Woo.

I haven’t bought because of what’s NOT included… 🤷‍♂️

How is it possible to have such a poor conversion of games which are 30 yrs old and always played fine?

Unless they update it to include the Master System versions of the 8-bit games (where available) I won't be upgrading

I need a digital web comic of Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog. Like inkypen but just the 300+ comic books of Sonic from first issue. 📚

@PokemonDMG That's pretty much impossible. Mostly because of ONE person.

Still hoping they add a CRT filter like the one in Mania!

@fabiop The games, at least the Mega Drive/Genesis, and Sega CD titles, have been recreated using the Retro Engine. They are not emulated roms, with hacked/modified code. This creates inconsistencies with how characters interact with some parts of the various level environments, presumably because Sonic /CD/2/3/&K all have mostly the same physics engine, with enough slight differences between those titles' physics engines, that only one physics engine might not work perfectly for all titles. The other answer to your (possibly rhetorical?) question is that Sega rushed Sonic Origins out the door, in my opinion.

Looks like a minor fix but very welcome.

They need to add Sonic & Knuckles, I have no idea why the collection doesn't have it.

They didn't even fix the graphical glitch where Tails flickers on the Sonic 3 & Knuckles file select screen if you have a file with all Super Emeralds collected. 🤦‍♂️

@Nool Hold on, what?

@MirrorFate2:

Yeah, unfortunately there's a graphical glitch that got added in to Sonic Origins Plus in an earlier update where there's a colour palette error on the Sonic 3 & Knuckles file select screen. If you've got a completed file with all Super Emeralds, you'll see Tails shimmering along with the circle of Chaos Emeralds in the group shot at the top of the screen. 🤦‍♂️

I was kinda hoping that'd get fixed with this patch, but unfortunately not. Hopefully it still might?

@Vash0125 Sega commissioned Stealth, one of the developers from Sonic Mania, to port Sonic 3 into the Retro Engine. Taxman/Christian Whitehead created the Retro Engine and used it to make the 2011 port of Sonic CD to mobile, and is the same general port used in Sonic Origins. Taxman and Stealth would go onto remake Sonic 1 and 2 in the Retro Engine in 2013.

Stealth has said that Sega did not give him and his team a realistic deadline for completing Sonic 3 & Knuckles for Origins, but they accepted the job anyway, seeing as Sega previously denied them the chance to complete the trilogy almost a decade prior. If they are going to add Sonic & Knuckles as a title, then they also need to add Sonic 3 as a standalone game, which features different level layouts and item box placements, as well as recreating the title screen for Sonic & Knuckles. All of this is work that Stealth and his team likely would have done if there was enough time, but there was not. And if we are expecting Sega to put in that extra work now, it is jut never going to be done.

@Nua Didn't know that, that really sucks because the inclusion of Sonic and Knuckles would pretty much make Origins the ultimate Sonic collection. I guess the best that I can hope for is a Virtual Console release.

@Vash0125 What content from Sonic & Knuckles are you wanting to play as a standalone game, since all of it is included in Sonic 3 & Knuckles?

@Clyde_Radcliffe spot on.

@Nua I feel really stupid now for not knowing that

@Vash0125 It's alright, not everyone grew up with Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles on their Genesis/Mega Drive. The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge has a cartridge port on the top, which allowed for the two games to connect. You could also combine with Sonic 2 for Knuckles in Sonic 2, or Sonic 1 for Blue Spheres. Almost any other Genesis game also gave a Blue Spheres level.

Sonic & Knuckles is the second half of Sonic 3, originally split for file size problems with Sonic 3 estimated to be larger than the cartridge size they were allotted, as well as a McDonalds Happy Meal Promotional period Sega couldn't miss. Sonic 3 is the first half, which is a bit different in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but not in any major way. Sonic & Knuckles though is the same regardless of cartridge, you'd just lack the Super Emeralds, and the ability to play as Tails. As a kid, I'd boot up just Sonic & Knuckles sometime to play Flying Battery Zone, but with the stage select codes, you can easily do that in Sonic 3 & Knuckles too.

@Nua As a kid I only ever owned Sonic 1,2 and Sonic & Knuckles so I always assumed all S&D added to games was the ability to play as Knuckles I never knew that Sonic 3 and S&D were actually one game that was split in two. The only thing holding back Origins from being the Ultimate Sonic collection is the lack of 3-D Blast and Spinball.

@Vash0125
Would have loved to have seen 3d with widescreen and whatnot (ditto chaotix, its an.... oddity for sure but i did love its visuals and soundtrack, everything was so vibrant)

@AmplifyMJ I caved and those tracks are sorely missed. Ice Cap 😢

@Nool It still might?

@MirrorFate2:

I've no idea whether that graphical glitch will ever get fixed or not, unfortunately. I hope so, though.

@Captain-N i agree with you. Providing such a low quality porting (remake call it how you want) is disgraceful. Super simple games…